Lukaku, great as he has been, is not playing at the peak of his physical fitness. Barkley neither. Both full of muscle but both playing within their athletic capabilities. I'd love to see what they could be like under Tottenham's fitness coach for example. In fact all our squad.

Apparently the stats say that my local team Mainz run more in a game than any other team in the german league.

I thought we did OK tonight! The sending off obviously put us a step back but we controlled it I thought until he took Lennon off and put Oviedo on! Only at that point did I think that we let them in and gave them the chances! Though they also threw on Adebayor and had Wickham too so they just lumped it up to them!The referee though did he even give us 1 free kick all night?I haven't seen either of McCarthys challenges again but from where I was for the 2nd I thought he couldn't get out the way and the Palace player was just looking to get him booked

Likes...

I thought we did OK tonight! The sending off obviously put us a step back but we controlled it I thought until he took Lennon off and put Oviedo on! Only at that point did I think that we let them in and gave them the chances! Though they also threw on Adebayor and had Wickham too so they just lumped it up to them!The referee though did he even give us 1 free kick all night?I haven't seen either of McCarthys challenges again but from where I was for the 2nd I thought he couldn't get out the way and the Palace player was just looking to get him booked

McCarthy deserved to be sent off. Although, I don't blame him. Very little he could do to get out the way for the second yellow.

As for we did ok?? If we had been playing against Spurs or Leicester, Utd etc, the yes I would say we did well to battle for a point. Especially down to 10 men.

However, the fact we were playing a REALLY crap palace team, who imo villa are the only team I think have looked worse against us this season. Kind of wipes out the we did ok talk.

I thought we did OK tonight! The sending off obviously put us a step back but we controlled it I thought until he took Lennon off and put Oviedo on! Only at that point did I think that we let them in and gave them the chances! Though they also threw on Adebayor and had Wickham too so they just lumped it up to them!The referee though did he even give us 1 free kick all night?I haven't seen either of McCarthys challenges again but from where I was for the 2nd I thought he couldn't get out the way and the Palace player was just looking to get him booked

So often this season a draw has felt like two points lost, this felt more like a point won, no discontent from the crowd in the away section, frustration of course mostly at the ref performance who didn't give us a single free kick all night and in my opinion on any other night we would have been given a pen for that challenge on Coleman. The Mcarthy second yellow was "harsh" not saying it wasn't a yellow but more often than not a ref would let that pass on a player already on a yellow. Thought Stones and Funes Mori played well, need that partnership to tighten up even further for the next few games though.

Baines looked knackered after 10 minutes, had no pace at all. Lukaku didn't win a single aerial challenge all night and looked incapable of using his body weight when in possession, something not quite right here, at one point in time he came over to the away fans and gestured with his arms for more support, best response was "you make a fuckin effort too Rom ! "

Looks like Ross has been told not to shoot from any distance, on at least 5 occasions he had an opportunity to shoot from 15-20 yards but ended up being dispossessed, on the one occasion that he took a shot from 20 yards he hit the crossbar, that and the pen that should have been given could quite easily put a better spin on this with 10 men. Couple of positives their, Robles pulled off a very decent save, Barry playing well, think if we had put Lennon or Gerry on the right wing we could have got more out of this game.

So often this season a draw has felt like two points lost, this felt more like a point won, no discontent from the crowd in the away section, frustration of course mostly at the ref performance who didn't give us a single free kick all night and in my opinion on any other night we would have been given a pen for that challenge on Coleman. The Mcarthy second yellow was "harsh" not saying it wasn't a yellow but more often than not a ref would let that pass on a player already on a yellow. Thought Stones and Funes Mori played well, need that partnership to tighten up even further for the next few games though.

Baines looked knackered after 10 minutes, had no pace at all. Lukaku didn't win a single aerial challenge all night and looked incapable of using his body weight when in possession, something not quite right here, at one point in time he came over to the away fans and gestured with his arms for more support, best response was "you make a fuckin effort too Rom ! "

Looks like Ross has been told not to shoot from any distance, on at least 5 occasions he had an opportunity to shoot from 15-20 yards but ended up being dispossessed, on the one occasion that he took a shot from 20 yards he hit the crossbar, that and the pen that should have been given could quite easily put a better spin on this with 10 men. Couple of positives their, Robles pulled off a very decent save, Barry playing well, think if we had put Lennon or Gerry on the right wing we could have got more out of this game.

Ronnie Goodlass on the radio last night said, without making too much of a point about it, that Lukaku was arguing with a few team mates, and had a go at Martinez. Did you see any of that?

Likes...

He was forever screaming for a pass but would have to say that on 50% of those occasions he was not in a good position to receive it but then had a moan when it didn't come in, his head definately gone a bit.Saw Martinez holding on to Baines arm on the sideline whilst Ball in play and Baines trying to keep his eyes on play whilst Martinez giving some kind of instructions in about the 70th minute, Baines eventually saw danger and pulled his arm away to get back into play whilst Martinez just spun on his heels, didn't see Baines pass on any master tactics to anyone else.